President Lee’s Bundang Home Moves Toward Clearing 1.77 Billion-Won Mortgage Lien; Cancellation Application Filed

[Financial News] It appears that the 1.77 billion-won mortgage lien on an apartment in Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, sold by President Lee Jae Myung and his wife, is close to being cleared. It has been confirmed that a mortgage lien cancellation case has been filed for the property and is being processed at the land registry office.
On the 2nd, a check of the apartment’s full certificate of registered matters on the Supreme Court’s Internet Registry Office website showed the notice: “A mortgage lien cancellation case for this property has been filed and is being processed.”
The application is currently being processed, so the mortgage lien has not yet been formally canceled. However, since the cancellation application has officially been filed, the lien will be cleared if the registration process is completed as usual.
Earlier, President Lee and his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, sold for 2.9 billion won the Yangji Maeul apartment in Sunae-dong, Bundang District, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, which they had jointly owned, and transferred ownership to the buyer in July. At the time, a mortgage lien with a maximum secured amount of 1.77 billion won was registered, with the presidential couple as the mortgagees.
The measure was intended to transfer ownership to the buyer first while securing the unpaid balance due to be paid later.
The Blue House said at the time that “the mortgage lien was established to secure the unpaid balance due at the end of October,” explaining that ownership was transferred first in consideration of the buyer’s circumstances. It also said the transaction was carried out under a civil agreement between the parties and that claims of personal ties or a special relationship with the buyer were entirely unfounded.
It was also explained that they had agreed not to charge separate interest during the period in which payment of the remaining balance was deferred. Ahn Gwi-ryeong, deputy spokesperson for the Blue House, said in a Blue House YouTube broadcast in July that President Lee and his wife had agreed not to receive interest for postponing the balance payment by several months.
At the time, opposition parties criticized the transaction as a way to circumvent lending restrictions, while the ruling bloc countered that it was a normal real estate transaction that took the buyer’s circumstances into account.
With the actual application to cancel the mortgage lien filed just after the end-of-October final payment date announced by the Blue House, speculation has emerged that the unpaid balance may also have been settled.
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo, Choi Jong-geun Reporter